mayor herzig

CHAMBER ANNOUNCES LINEUP

ONEONTA – The Otsego County Chamber of Commerce today announced the lineup for its annual State of the State Breakfast, scheduled as it’s been traditionally done on the day after New Year’s Day.

The headliners are state Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, Cooperstown’s new mayor, Ellen Tillapaugh Kuch and her Oneonta counterpart, Gary Herzig, and David Bliss, chairman of the Otsego County Board of Representatives.

Agreement Wood, Herzig Reached

Ups Ratepayer Fees By 1.8 Percent

By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com

Bob Wood

WEST ONEONTA – The Oneonta Town Board has scheduled a public hearing for 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 14, after which it can vote to create a new fire district, ending more than two years of uncertainty on whether 80 percent of the town would continue to be served by the city’s paid, fulltime Oneonta Fire Department.

Town Supervisor Bob Wood said he and city Mayor Gary Herzig took “an hour and half” of negotiation to reach a new fire contract between the town and city, an achievement that had eluded the now dissolved town Board of Fire Commissioners for more than two years.

U.S. Rep. John Faso welcomes attendees to today’s rural development forum at Hartwick’s Shineman Chapel. He is flanked by the guest of honor, Assistant USDA Secretary Anne Hazlett, left, and College President Margaret L. Drugovich, the host. At right are Otsego Now CEO Jody Zakrevsky and Kinderhook Bank VP Anne Finnegan. (Jim Kevlin/AlOTSEGO.com)

By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com

New York has fewer people than Florida and double the state budget. That says it all, Country Club Auto’s Tom Armao, left, says. Also on today’s panel was Brooks B-B-Q’s Ryan Brooks, right.

ONEONTA – Not only did the USDA assistant secretary for Rural Development learn about Upstate declining population at her visit to Hartwick College this morning, she got a sense of the impacts.

In her opening remarks, Hartwick President Margaret L. Drugovich reported a 17 percent decline in high school graduates between 2009 and 2017, and some predictions of “another 4-8 percent in the next 15 years,” a challenge for Upstate liberal arts colleges.

“These are the kind of things on my mind when we think about economic development,” said Drugovich, economic development being one of the topic when Anne Hazlett, the USDA official charged with rural development, convened a two-hour forum of a dozen community leaders in Shineman Chapel.

ONEONTA – For a second year, state Sen. Jim Seward, R-Oneonta, has obtained “impact aid” – $194,500 this budget year – to offset public safety costs to the City of Oneonta from being a host community to a SUNY college.

“Our SUNY schools are a real asset – educating our future leaders, and helping drive the local economy,” said Seward in an announcement this afternoon. “However, there is a financial trade-off that goes overlooked and local taxpayers should not be left holding the bag. The SUNY Impact Aid funding is genuine mandate relief.”

STATE OF STATE IN ONEONTA

Cuomo Envoy Details

Investments Upstate

With Governor Cuomo’s six-stop statewide tour to deliver his State of the State speech complete, his commissioners today fanned out to New York’s smaller cities to give slide shows and answer the questions of local audiences, as RoAnn Destito, state Office of General Services commissioner, did for 50 elected officials, businesspeople and SUNY Oneonta President Nancy Kleniewski and her team members at Foothills in Oneonta this afternoon. Listening, top photo, are, from left, Oneonta Town Supervisor Bob Wood, and Common Council members David Rissberger and Melissa Nicosia. In photo at left, Mayor Gary Herzig listens to the presentation, in which the $10 million in state Downtown Revitalization Initiative money to Oneonta was mentioned several times. Behind Herzig are County Rep. Andrew Marietta, D-Cooperstown/Otsego, left, and Oneonta Family Y Executive Director Frank Russo. (Jim Kevlin/AllOTSEGO.com)

ONEONTA – In response to Police Chief Dennis Nayor’s resignation to take an Albany job, Mayor Gary Herzig today said he will meet with Nayor, Police Lt. Douglas W. Brenner, and City Hall’s Personnel Director Katie Bottinger in the next few days to chart steps going forward.

“It’s a loss for Oneonta,” the mayor said of the news that Nayor will become director of research, development and training at the state Association of Police Chiefs, “but a gain for the rest of the state, who will have the opportunity to learn from him.”

Earlier this morning, the city announced that Nayor would be stepping down as chief in January 2017, a position he has held since 2012. “He has really created a department that is a shining example of how a police department should operate,” said Herzig.

MOHAWK VALLEY ‘TOP PERFORMER’

Governor Cuomo appears in photo for Mohawk Valley contingent that includes Otsego County this afternoon at The Egg in Albany. Local attendees include state Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, front row, fifth from right, and county Rep. Len Carson, R-Oneonta, back row, second from left, and county Rep. Andrew Marietta, R-Cooperstown/Town of Otsego, far right.

By LIBBY CUDMORE • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com

Oneonta’s “food hub” is a go with today’s announcement that a $3 million CFA is en route from the Cuomo Administration.

“I’m delighted with the results,” said Oneonta Mayor Gary Herzig. “This award assures that the project – one of the primary anchors of the Downtown Revitalization Initiative – will progress in a timely manner.”

The money will allow construction to begin, perhaps as soon as spring, on what’s officially called the Susquehanna Regional Food & Beverage Hub at Chestnut and Market streets in Oneonta, site of the former Oneonta Ford.

Another winner of the coveted CFA grants, the Cuomo Administration’s vehicle for distributing economic-development funding, was the Village of Cooperstown, which won $120,000 for continue restoration to Village Hall, including making the building ADA compliant.

OUR Tree at Rockefeller Center

Craig and Angie Eichler and Mayor Gary Herzig and Oneonta First Lady Connie are awaiting the big moment in the VIP section at the foot of the 96-foot-tall blue spruce from Oneonta that will be lit alongside Rockefeller Center’s ice rink at 8:55.

CHECK BACK THROUGH THE EVENING

FOR MORE ON LIGHTING ONEONTA TREE

OUR Tree at Rockefeller Center

Oneonta Mayor Gary Herzig sent along this selfie of himself the the Eichler family’s big spruce from a VIP section at the foot of the tree, a few steps from the famed Rockefeller Center ice rink, where the 95-foot-tall tree is scheduled to be illuminated at 8:55 this evening. A light rain is falling, but spirits are high, AllOTSEGO.com Rockefeller Center Bureau Chief Libby Cudmore is reporting from the scene.

CHECK BACK THROUGH THE EVENING

FOR MORE ON LIGHTING ONEONTA TREE

James Rubin, state commissioner of Homes & Community Renewal, foreground, completed a tour of Oneonta’s downtown a few minutes ago, hosted by, from left, Mayor Gary Herzig, Otsego Now President Sandy Mathes and state Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford. The group examined “The New Downtown,” the Market Street slated for development thanks to the $10 million Downtown Revitalization Grant the city received from the Cuomo Administration last week. Jeff House, interim Community Development director, and Herzig gave brief summaries of downtown businesses and discussed future restaurant and housing projects. On Market Street, they described the “food hub,” transportation center, housing and parking plans. “There is still a glow here in the city since the announcement last week.” said Mathes. (Ian Austin/AllOTSEGO.com)

Cuomo Administration Delivers

Downtown Development Bonanza

Oneonta’s First Lady Connie Herzig joins in the wild applause when the $10 mllion special allocation for downtown redevelopment in the City of the Hills was announced this afternoon at Foothills. (Jim Kevlin/AllOTSEGO.com)

Empire State Development President Howard Zemsky makes an announcement that thrilled a who’s who crowd this afternoon at Foothills.

ONEONTA – Governor Cuomo couldn’t make it, called away from a City of the Hills appearance by a collapsing crane on the Tappan Zee Bridge project. But he sent the check.

$10 million. Howard Zemsky, Empire Development Corp. president, announced at 3:45 p.m. that Oneonta has won the special multi-million allocation earmarked for downtown redevelopment in the whole Mohawk Valley Economic Development Region.

In making the announcement, Zemsky said this city’s application – it was championed and fast-tracked in May by Mayor Gary Herzig, assisted by Otsego Now President Sandy Mathes and his staff – had it all: an affordable housing piece, a downtown strategy, an entertainment piece (in Foothills Performing Arts Center), and an overriding concept – the “food hub” initiative.

Herzig: Winning Cuomo Contest

Will Put City Over ‘Tipping Point’

By JIM KEVLIN • for www.AllOTSEGO.com

Oneonta is “a cool place” at “a tipping point,” and the city will compete for $10 million in state downtown-redevelopment funds to put it over the top, Mayor Herzig told the League of Women Voters this evening. (Jim Kevlin/AllOTSEGO.com)

ONEONTA – Mayor Gary Herzig this evening announced the City of Oneonta will be submitting an application by the 4 p.m. deadline next Tuesday seeking the whole $10 million Governor Cuomo has designated for downtown redevelopment in the Mohawk Valley.

Speaking at the annual meeting of the League of Women Voters, Oneonta chapter, Herzig said the City of the Hills “has been pushing a boulder up a hill … When you get to the top, it only takes a little push to get it over the top.”

Oneonta is at “a tipping point,” he said.

The $10 million, he said, is that little push, all that Oneonta needs to move dramatically forward, to leverage private investment to address the city’s two key needs: more good-paying jobs and sufficient housing, now lacking “at every income level.”

On one contentious issue – whether to keep the city manager’s qualifications in the charter, or allow them to be changed by a vote of Common Council – the mayor said he is willing to “leave the current qualifications unchanged in the charter.”

On another contentious issue – whether the charter should be changed to allow a mayor to cast a vote on selecting a city manager – Herzig said he would accept the status quo.

A serious Gary Herzig, with his smiling wife Connie holding the Bible, is sworn in as mayor of Oneonta by City Judge Lucy Bernier. The ceremony, at about 6:40 p.m. today in Council Chambers, may spell the end of 10 months of turmoil since the sudden passing of Mayor Dick Miller last Oct. 25. In remarks following the ceremony, the new mayor declared, “the challenges are many, but there is reason for optimism.” And he ticked off a number of initiatives he plans. “You know as well as I do that Oneonta is a special place,” he said. “Together, we can make it an even better place. I promise to work with you on that.” (Jim Kevlin/AllOTSEGO.com)The SRO crowd leaped to its feet in applause when Judge Bernier pronounced Gary Herzig to be Oneonta’s new mayor. Front row, front right, are county Rep. Kay Stuligross, D-Oneonta (first lady Connie Herzig and Judge Bernier had been sitting to Stuligross’ right); Kelly Finn, wife of Planning Commission chair Dennis Finn; Oneonta Town Supervisor Bob Wood; state Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, and former Mayors John Nader, Al Nader and Kim Muller. In the second row, from right, are Steve Londner, member of the former Charter Revision Commission; county Rep. Gary Koutnik, D-Oneonta; Rosalie Higgins, former school board member and Oneonta Rotary president, and Marie Lusins, retired Oneonta Town Board member. Visible under the clock is Dan Buttermann, school board member.